In 1926, Ty Cobb announced his retirement from managing the Detroit Tigers; Michigan political fixture John Dingell was born; former Ypsilanti city attorney Fred W. Green was elected state governor; and Ned Hale Smith passed the state bar exam.
You might not recognize the name of Ned Smith. In fact, you’re just as likely to recognize any other name of passers of the September 1926 bar exam. But when the Detroit Free Press published the list of 242 names, Ned was the only candidate highlighted with an individualized mention because he was blind.1
Ned’s eyesight had always been an issue, and he had always fought against being viewed differently by others. He was born partially blind on April 11, 1901, in Elkhart, Indiana, to Michigan natives Hale Howe Smith and Mary Ellen Kline.2 Less than a decade later, the family — which by then included a younger brother named Rex — moved back to Michigan, where Hale Smith worked in a cotton factory and as a salesman.
Though Ned's eyesight was never good, it was repairable. In 1919, he went to the University of Michigan Hospital in Ann Arbor for surgery. That would have been the end of it if not for a very cold winter that not only negated the effects of the previous surgery but also caused Ned Smith to go completely blind.
Years later, Smith recalled his initial despair, saying that he “couldn’t face the future” sightless.3 But thanks to a watershed conversation with a doctor and an excellent support system, he was determined that he “could and would do everything [he] planned on doing.”4 He refused to “carry a cane or wear dark glasses”5 and insisted on being treated as a “real honest-to-gosh fellow” and “not a blamed thing to be handled with care.”6
After graduating from Detroit’s Northern High School, Smith enrolled at the University of Michigan with the intention of entering the medical field. He was not the only blind student in Ann Arbor: There was Germ G. Ensing, who was “obtaining an education in machine shop work” and hoped to be a teacher; J.M. Caldwell, who “employ[ed] two readers”; and John Bezlock, who was focused on a literary education.7
Early on, Smith decided to change majors. His lack of sight was a hindrance in laboratory work, so he switched to the law school. And while he had decided that he could do everything, others were less than encouraging. At least one professor noted “that there was too much reading that [he] could never do” in the study of law.8 Smith would not be deterred, however, and at least two of his friends — Arnold Fleig and William Schoonover — read the classwork to him; he was fortunate to have an excellent memory.9
In 1926, Smith graduated from the University of Michigan Law School and was highlighted as the school’s first blind graduate, a designation that may have annoyed him. Yes, he was blind, but he had graduated from law school, successfully passed the bar exam, and was eager to get to work as an attorney — just “an attorney” without the caveat. He wanted “everyone [to] treat [him] as though [he] were human, not a blamed thing to be handled with care.”10
And he did, finding work in the Wayne County prosecutor’s office. Before long, Smith’s preface as a blind lawyer was followed by the phrase, “Don’t mess with him.” He could visualize better than a sighted lawyer and used that advantage to paint the picture of the scene of the crime, which helped him make his arguments. He had impeccable hearing and could gather more from a witness’ tone than his or her words.11
In the mid-1930s, Smith decided he needed a new challenge and threw his hat into the ring for the election for common pleas judge when a vacancy was caused by the passing of George Buckley. The Citizens League noted its preference for Smith in the race, but he may have been irked by the final line in his candidate description: “Blind since 1919, but having excellent record in public service.”12 No other candidate was subject to discussion of their medical condition.
Smith won with relative ease. It was reported that he “had a 2½ to 1 lead over his opponent.”13 The blind attorney-turned-judge became a news item across the state and the Midwest. When he was sworn into his new position, the courtroom was packed with friends; “representatives of the judiciary; former classmates; members of the Detroit Bar Association;” his wife, Lois; and their young daughter, Barbara.14
Smith remained a common pleas judge until his death in 1956 and is seen as the “precedent for a blind man in an elective office,” most notably by Michigan’s first blind legislator, Robert D. Mahoney, who was elected in 1955.15
Ned Smith died almost 40 years to the day after the notice of his successful passage of the bar exam appeared in the Detroit Free Press. The obituary in the Free Press on Sept. 13, 1956, noted that “because he was blind, Judge Smith, 55, of 225 Covington, was a phenomenon in American jurisprudence.”